There's a plan to test 6,600 rape kits

Houston Chronicle

Updated 9:40 pm, Monday, February 25, 2013

Earlier this month, when Mayor Annise Parker announced that Houston's backlog of more than 6,600 rape kits would at long last be tested within the next 14 months ("City plans to erase rape kit backlog," February 14, A1), we felt mixed emotions: relief that finally, there's a real-time plan to get that DNA examined; and astonishment that it's taken this long to arrive at that plan.

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How many crimes could have been solved if we'd tested those kits long ago?

How many rapes might have been prevented?

How many victims suffered the ordeal of having DNA collected from their bodies, only to have that evidence ignored?

We have no argument at all with the city's plan to spend $4.4 million (half federal grants, half from the city budget) to have those kits tested by outside contractors.

And we're pleased that because of this decision, the city's reformulated independent crime lab - set to open later this year - won't be decades behind schedule on the first day that it opens its doors.

These tests needed to be done. We only wish that they'd been done sooner.